Two Medicine Falls

Two Medicine Falls
Originally uploaded by cgoble72.

After reading "Floating in Montana" that describes most every large volume river in the state, I was a little bit worried about the possibility of a near unportable falls in a deep shale canyon. The truth is actually quite different.

The upper Two medicine is located 1.0 hours south of Cardston by the town of East Glacier. The run starts at the first bridge north of East Glacier. There is a pull out just south of the bridge. The suggested take out is the highway bridge. The easy walk out is on the east side up a large grassy hill.

The run is about 6km in length and has quite a few small features. I would guess a solid class II all the way down. It has a character similar to Livingstone, but more constant and with crux rapids a half grade down. At higher flows there should be loads of easy surf waves. After the falls things often run over a flalt bedrock base.



The falls are about 15 to 20 feet tall and quite clean. There are no undercuts. The left side feeds into a deadly tree. Porting requires a short hike to some trees and a rope to lower boats off a tree and perhaps a body rappel for 15 or 20 feet. (Pretty easy compared to the epic imagined). A large pool backs up the falls. A few ledges lead to this. Get out river left.



All in all a great run. I would say low flow is 600, medium probably 900


Standard rapids for the top 1/3. The bottom 2/3 is more wavy than ledgy.

There were two or three partial sweepers, but no river wide logs. It was pretty wood free all in all. Since it is about the same distance from Lethbridge as some of the Castle runs, I wouldn't be surprised if this run becomes quite popular. Since it is dam released the season may be fairly long.
/br>

UPDATE Low flow - 700 to 900


Medium - 900 - 1300


High 1300 - 2000?



More images from the trip on Thursday are here

Long Weekend Rendezvous

3 Rivers Whitewater Rendezvous (Snofest)

The Pinch-o-Crow Creekers are hosting the 8th annual River Rendezvous on May 19-20-21-22 again this year down in southwest Alberta in the "Centre of Adventure". We will be organizing and leading trips on the Castle, Crowsnest and Oldman Rivers in this area. There will also be opportunities to go paddle Cameron Creek and the Carbondale, Elk, Wigwam, Highwood, Waterton or Belly Rivers while you are down here. Only three days and too many rivers to paddle.

There will be opportunities for beginner groups to get on the water and paddle easier stretches as well as more advanced trips. We have something special planned for this year, including more sun, less snow and lots of water for all you big wave fans. Okay seriously – its always been fun and it will be fun this year too!

Camping is going to be the same as last year. We will be at the Castle River Rodeo Grounds. You may remember it as the takeout for the Upper Castle River run. It is centrally located and easy to find off Highway 507 between Lundbreck/Burmis and Beaver Mines, just south of Highway 3. This site is well sheltered and has more conveniences as well.

Drive west on Highway 3 past Lundbreck Falls till you come to Highway 507. Turn south and head towards Beaver Mines and Castle Mountain Ski Resort. Drive 8 km south, after you cross the Castle River at the top of the hill turn east to the Castle River Rodeo Grounds. The road swings back down to the river and we are camped right there.

We will again offer a bbq-burger and fixings dinner for Saturday night and the Sunday night we will have a chili dinner. There will be vege-burgers and a vege-chili for those who want it. Please let us in advance know so that we can order enough for you.

We are again hosting a full breakfast each morning. Cost is included in the package this year.

Prizes will be drawn for during the weekend.

We are building a package price for the weekened. This price includes all entries, 3 nights camping, 2 suppers and 3 breakfasts, prizes. I hope that will be reasonable for everyone and still allow us to cover the costs.

Paddlers - Adult/Junior $45.00
Non-Paddlers $35.00
Non-Paddling Children (under 10) $15.00
Toddlers (3 and under) Free
Families of 3 $95.00
of 4 $110.00
of 5 or more $120 + $10 for each additional adult/junior

There is an additional prize entry for all those who preregister. Please help us with figuring out how much food to prepare. If you want to set aside a camping spot with your friends I would appreciate knowing that in advance so we can pencil you in and rope a spot off for your group.

There is no need to prepay, we'll collect when you get here.

Trips planned Advanced Novice
Saturday - Castle Falls to Rodeo grounds Crowsnest River
- Castle Canyon
- Elk

Sunday - Castle Canyon to Reservoir Castle R Rodeo to Canyon
- Carbondale River Crowsnest River
- Upper Oldman
- Elk

Monday - Oldman River Gap to Oldman River Dennis Ranch
Dennis Ranch to Bob Creek

Snowpack in the mountains is well above average this year, which is surprising given the nice spring we have had. So with some warmer weather we should be well above normal for lots of water this year.

For up to date info on water levels and snowpack go to:
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/env/water/basins/BasinForm.cfm
go to Oldman River Basin - River Data - and then check out the Castle and Oldman Rivers.

So we are building on our very successful long weekend event. In 2005 we had 105 paddlers down here, so it was a great gathering and still with so many locations there was lots of space for everyone. We hope to see you down here and look forward to paddling with you. Please pass this message along to your club members.


Chuck Lee
Pinch-O-Crow Creekers
Box 162
Lundbreck, Alberta
403-628-2336 evenings
403-627-3020 days

Trips May 12th to May 18th

Post any trip proposals here. I will be up around the Calgary area this week. Perhaps near Radium or the Kicking Horse if the weather is nice.

King of the Castle

This weekend, I introduced a few new paddlers to the Castle River and what can I say... some happy paddlers.

(Me dropping in)

The paddle starts at castle falls, which is a great class IV to start with. That is if you've never run a class IV and want to start, this is the one. It's easy access and it's at the start so if you change your mind, you can skip it. As you can see, they didn't!

(Nathan on his way out of the falls)

(Ethan on his way in)

The run is about 8.8km and is a pretty action packed run for the first half. After that it drops down to the mellow tempo of class II. Here we see Janson "the vice" Smith dropping into Narrow Gate rapids. I believe it's a class III+

See you on the river!

P.S. you can download full size images on www.flickr.com! Just join up and search under my name to find all these pictures!

Courses

As was mentioned at the AGM there will be a series of courses running out in the Cardston area this spring. The begginer course is a level 1/2 course. It will focus on basic paddling skills in a slow moving river setting. It should be a good introduction to such things as basic paddle strokes and techniques, loading boats, organizing shuttle, etc. It should also introduce you to some good novice runs. Enrollment is limited to 5 or 6. $100 including club membership. $150 with boat rental.

The intermediate course is a combination of a level 2/3 course. Paddlers should have previous white water experience equivalent to the upper St. Mary's. It will focus on river running skills, group dynamics and safety. A variety of runs will be done based on paddler experience and skill. Enrollment is limited to 4 or 5. $100 including club membership $175 with boat rentals.




MORE INFO INCLUDING DATES

AGM

I would like to thank all those that showed up for the AGM.

Although it can be a pretty tedious hour, it’s the only time we can get input from the club members. It’s when we decide the direction to take the club. If people want easier river trips, this is the time to voice that! As it was, most of those that showed up were interested in class III or higher, with a few people wanting class II or lower. For this year, expect most of the trips to fit the demographics of those that showed up.

See you on the river.

Minutes are found here

Trips May 5 to May 11

It looks like the local rivers are coming up. The belly is good, the Castle is good, the Middle Fork is great. Other Montana runs are in, and the Upper Saint will soon be in decent shape.

Great Link to River Flows!

Someone (kearl) emailed me a link to this site.

http://kayak.definitionsystems.ca/

It gives you the flows of a bunch of rivers all at the same time! Chris will hopefully get this on the sidebar soon. With this site, you can quickly decide which flows are up and what would be best to paddle!

Nice Job "kearl"!

New Play Wave on the Belly

With the hard work of Chris Goble and a few hardy volunteers (on Saturday), we now have an even better play wave on the BellyRiver!


Notice the huge eddy wall that has been built up on the bottom right of the picture. This eddy not only diverts water towards the play waves, but makes it easier to catch the upsteam current to get back on the wave.


Here we have some friendly paddlers willing to try out the great surf wave! Flows were around 13 cms. With the location of the wave, it makes an almost perfect park and play location! With a short hike upstream (less than 5min.) you could ferry back across the river and get back to your car! The put-in is at the bridge that crosses the belly river on the way to Waterton. Below is a map if your unsure of where that is.


See you on the river!

Snow

On April 27 we were Mountain Biking in Blairmore (deadman pass) and the snow melt has not really even started yet. One could almost still ski Allison Creek as most if not all of the lower trails still had atleast a foot of snow. It meant that we biked on the trails closer to town (backside of turtle mountain). Great rides on friday pm and saturday but it is absolutely dumping (big monster, wet snow) today (sunday) and more rain is in the forcast. That means there should be lots of water for boating for some time to come. On a side note; my Moab holiday (mountain biking over easterwas) was great, slickrock was a morning ritual as was the cup of java at wicked brew that followed. Ran into Isabelle and Lannie who were also down to do some bipedal movement. Any word yet on Chuck's (pincher crow creekers) may long weekend rendezvous. I have been seeing people advertise it on their websites but nothing from the big guy himself as of yet.

Kayak Store in Town!

For those looking for a new boat, we have a specialty boating store.

High Level Canoes and Kayaks
1805 - 2 Ave South
Lethbridge Alberta
Phone 403 327-4506
Hours 8:00 -5:00 (Mon - Fri)
10:00 - 4:00 (Sat)
www.highlevelcanoesandkayaks.com

They are carrying Necky, Oldtown, Madriver, Clipper, Wilderness, Perception, Dagger,and Wave Sport. There is a discounts for club members, so if you like the possibility of having gear available without a 4+ hour return drive to Calgary, it might not be a bad idea to swing some business their way.

They are keen on finding ways to integrate the club into their activities / promotions! Look for postings about possible demo days, club discount night or end of season clearances!

Show up at the AGM for your new Cards & to hear about the club member discount.

Trips April 28 to May 4

I just wanted to open a spot for posting trips for the next week. My brothers and I are planning for the Belly on Saturday... Chris introduced it to us early this week, and it has provided a couple of fun, early season paddles already (see Chris' comments on previous "Belly" post). If Chris stays back form Calgary this weekend, he may take us down Middle Fork instead.

The weather is inviting, and it's time to get wet. Please use this post to either join up with a planned paddle or let club members know of an adventures that you wouldn't mind sharing.

Happy Paddling!